Bellflower school board votes to end adult ed program

"Our mandate is K-12," Bellflower Unified Superintendent Brian Jacobs said. "We have to cut other programs to save cutting programs for the children."

Board members Jerry Cleveland and Laura Sanchez-Ramirez echoed Jacobs' view as they explained their decision to the crowd of parents and students who had showed up to protest the school's closure.

The district faces a $5.8 million deficit in the 2012-2013 school year, which begins July 1, and eliminating the adult School will save $2.8 million, Jacobs told the Press-Telegram Thursday afternoon.

Bellflower Unified has an annual budget of roughly $100 million and serves 14,000 students in Bellflower and portions of Lakewood and Cerritos.

The adult school offers GED classes and courses such as cosmetology, esthetician training and photography.

Several adult school students who spoke at the board meeting expressed concern about the money they had invested to attend the school and not being able to graduate if the program is cut June 30.

The board will figure out a plan to either reimburse students for their costs or help them transfer to another adult school, such as Cerritos College, Jacobs said.

The district has been discussing some type of cuts to the adult school for a couple of years, but made the decision to eliminate it when Gov. Jerry Brown in January submitted his state budget, which cut the school district's funding by $7 million, Jacobs said.

The school stopped enrolling students in January because of its possible July closure, the superintendent said.

The school board discussed the adult school's possible elimination because the teachers are certified employees and must be notified by March 15, according to state law, if they could lose their jobs.

If the board approves eliminating the adult school, the board must make another $3 million in cuts to balance the budget. Jacobs said the other cuts might come from a combination of furloughs, layoffs and ending other programs.

Jacobs said that, despite rumors about the Head Start preschool program being slashed as well, the adult school was the only program that the board was considering eliminating Thursday. The school board's agenda item outlining the reductions didn't mention ending Head Start, but did make reference to other "service cuts."

The cuts will eliminate the equivalent of 21 full-time positions districtwide, including seven in the adult school program, according to a report to the council. However, the report doesn't explain from which programs all of the other cuts will be made.

Like most California school districts, Bellflower Unified has faced ongoing budget problems in recent years as state funding has diminished. Other districts are also considering cutting adult school programs, including Los Angeles Unified School District.

In recent years, Bellflower Unified has taken several cost-cutting measures to help balance its budget, including furloughs and increasing class sizes.